SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Here's what it sounded like all week outside 10 Downing Street, the home of the British prime minister who is struggling to keep his job.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Are you just squatting in No. 10? Prime minister, is your time up?
PFEIFFER: Prime Minister Keir Starmer's center-left Labour Party got trounced in local elections last week. Some lawmakers want to replace Starmer, but they're mired in infighting over who should succeed him. NPR's Lauren Frayer is at our bureau in London. Hi, Lauren.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hi there.
PFEIFFER: So this has been a very tumultuous week in British politics. How would you describe the mood there?
FRAYER: It has been whiplash. Markets have gone haywire. People worry this as a return to the revolving door of prime ministers. You know, this country had five prime ministers in less than seven years. Starmer's election two summers ago was billed as a return to sort of boring stability, and lately it has been anything but. We had this extraordinary scene yesterday when King Charles visited Parliament, read aloud the Prime Minister's agenda for the next year. We don't know if the prime minister will be in office to implement it. One lawmaker summed up the mood in Parliament best.
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KEMI BADENOCH: What on Earth are we all doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yeah.
FRAYER: That's Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservatives, talking about just how exasperated voters are feeling.
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BADENOCH: The country is angry with the entire political class.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Yeah.
BADENOCH: All of us here. They are not happy with how we have been doing politics.
FRAYER: I mean, you might recognize some of that sentiment from U.S. voters, you know...
PFEIFFER: Oh, yes.
FRAYER: ...On your side of the pond.
PFEIFFER: Very much so.
FRAYER: Here, it has fueled support for anti-establishment parties who, as you mentioned, trounced Labour and Conservatives, the two traditional parties, last week in municipal elections. A real blow to the two-party system.
PFEIFFER: Yeah. So tell us more. Who did well in those elections?
FRAYER: A far-right, anti-immigrant party made particularly big gains, and that has sent the political establishment into a frenzy over how to stop the far-right from doing the same in national elections, which are expected three years from now. Starmer had a huge majority, and polls show voters don't think he has delivered on promises to increase government services, lower the cost of living. You know, he says a lot of that has been outside of his control - the Iran War, tariffs from the Trump administration. He spoke to the nation earlier this week.
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PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: I know that people are frustrated by the state of Britain, frustrated by politics and some people frustrated with me.
FRAYER: He's basically asking for more time to win over what he called his doubters, but his party is thinking of replacing him.
PFEIFFER: And Lauren, who's on the list of possible replacements?
FRAYER: That is the big question. Health Secretary Wes Streeting quit the cabinet today. He might throw in his hat into the ring. Today, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said she's been cleared of wrongdoing in this tax scandal that forced her out of the cabinet last year. She might now challenge her old boss Starmer.
And there's also Andy Burnham. He's a popular mayor of Manchester. He's nicknamed the King of the North - Manchester's in Northern England. And he may now run in a special election to become an MP, which would make him eligible to challenge Starmer. But only if Starmer allows him to run in that election - which he's expected to do - and if he wins, and that's no guarantee.
None of these contenders has filed an official challenge to Starmer. If they do, they'd need support of 20% of their fellow Labour MPs. Then the party would hold a sort of primary. You know, people registered as Labour members would vote. Starmer would be part of that. So this will be a very long process. It will probably take all summer, and it could possibly even end with Starmer staying in office, after all of that.
PFEIFFER: That is NPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Lauren, thank you for covering this.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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